Supporting bands

I wasted an opportunity a while back, with the Grammy Gig of a Lifetime contest.

Fall Out Boy were judges, which is how I knew about it, and I started thinking about bands to nominate. The problem was that the bands could only have four members. Grammys, what do you have against rock?

The standard rock band configuration is five people: singer, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. Yes, you can get away with four people if your singer also plays an instrument (which Fall Out Boy does), but then what if they want keyboards? Despite being four-member bands, All American Rejects and My Chemical Romance tend to have six people on stage, and it works.

I ended up nominating Prima Donna, because while they do have five people, they are based in Los Angeles, so transportation costs would not be an issue. I don't think the Grammys saw it that way. I probably should have looked harder for a four-person band. As it was, I was not aware of TEAM (whose singer does play an instrument) during the nomination period, but someone else did, and I was happy to give them my votes.

The winner ended up being Barrett Baber, a country singer from Arkansas. I didn't watch, and everything I remember people even talking about was not really musical. Well, what can you expect from a show that limits band size to four people?

There were still some interesting things. One reason I made the 5-member band I nominated Prima Donna, instead of Revenir (besides logistics) was that Prima Donna had live performance footage on line, and Revenir did not at that time, despite having other videos. Different opportunities may require having different things available, and so presenting your band in different ways, over different formats, is something to think about. And I think about these things all the time, because I care.

A band follows me (or I have always liked them, or they opened for someone I have always liked, or something), and I follow them and eventually a review happens. Those have been pretty good experiences. There is a lot of talent out there, and a lot of heart, and I do have a soft spot for musicians. I get attached and want good things for them.

I also have to move on, because there are more bands to review, and more music history to learn, and there is only so much time available. That's why I started doing the songs of the day. It's a chance to go back and remember, and maybe someone who didn't read the review will click on the song.

I have had hopes at times that my music reviews would be a way for people to discover new bands, and that hasn't really panned out. I think the actual role I fill is that the band can show the review to their parents and say "Look! Someone wrote about us." I can live with that. If I didn't believe in doing things for parents, I wouldn't have a mortgage.

There is generally this feeling of wanting to do more. So sometimes there are contests where you can vote, and they do get a slot in a Battle of the Bands, or they get ranked in AltPress. I did vote for these metal awards, and it was amazing to see that I recognized names in all of the main categories. A year ago, that would not have been the case. Sometimes you can support crowd-sourcing projects. Also, I take requests for music suggestions very seriously.

Another pointless story may help here. I was out for karaoke in December, and I was able to find some songs, but two I couldn't were "Mercy Me" by Alkaline Trio and "Saturday Night" by the Misfits. The KJ said they were just too obscure, and this is a KJ from a pair that has so many songs available they don't even use books.

"Saturday Night" may be legitimately obscure (and whenever I do get a chance to sing it, I will sound totally demented; I accept this); "Mercy Me" shouldn't be. It had a release and a video. It charted a little. It was featured in a video game.

The problem is that with the current musical landscape, it's hard to be noticed at all. They do get songs from Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, but I don't want to sing that. Yes, there are many songs from the '80s and '90s that I can work with, but it shouldn't stop there, and it largely does. Country music does get updated, but they have their own separate channel.

There are things that can be kind of nice about this. Some of those connections, where a band can recognize a fan from Twitter, would be less likely with more mainstream success. There are things I like about shows in smaller venues. Financially, though, there can be issues, and some of the music is beautiful and helpful; it should reach more people.

I have written about this before, and I don't really know the answers. Certainly not downloading music illegally is important, but getting that bigger audience, and reaching more people, that's hard. And, it's not my job, really - bands need to be on top of that for their own sake - but I want to help.

December 16th through the 22nd

I think I am ready to sort out that week now. I've only been working on the post for two weeks.

It started with a comment on my blog. I had three posts about death that week, and in the first one I mentioned Ken Ober. That post was inspired by the reaction to Paul Walker's death, but the more important part was Ken, because there was grief there, and a lack of closure.

I have no idea how it was seen, but this was the comment I got:

Hi Gina,

If it gives you any kind of closure, I can tell you that Ken Ober died from heart failure -- not a heart attack, but from the gradual progression of heart disease which, it seems, is primarily hereditary. His death was sudden and unexpected but clearly the disease had been at work for a long time. But, please, even if I've helped with some closure, don't let it stop you from saying things about Ken. He's worth remembering.

Regards,

Ken's brother

I kind of hate writing about this, because it's special, and I don't want to cheapen it, but it is special, so I am writing about it. A question was answered, but more than that there was the acknowledgment, and the shared feeling, and the connection.

In writing, that week was a lot about death, but it was also about life. I posted that during the day, but that night I went to a concert. It was a great show, which would make for a pretty good week anyway. Also, I knew that I would review those bands Thursday and Friday, and they would be bands #99 and #100 since I started doing this. That felt big, and I liked that it was going to coincide with a live show.

I also liked that it ended up being who it was: TEAM and Third Eye Blind. In the reviews I wrote about their mutual appreciation and their fostering of connections, but I am going to give an example. December 30th, Alex Kopp tweeted "Listen to @WeAreCalledTEAM everyday. Just do it." and then Alex LeCavalier replied that he could not stop listening, because they were so good.

I hate musician feuds, but even more so I love musicians supporting other musicians. I love that their egos are not too large to let them appreciate someone else. I love that they don't get this mindset that there is only a limited amount of success available and they need to be competitive and greedy about it. Basically I love people supporting each other and being kind to each other. Maybe musicians stick out more.

And overall, both of these bands have been great about paying attention to the fans too. I wrote about Third Eye Blind Wednesday, and I will write more about TEAM tomorrow, but they provide a lot of warm feelings. So, among the various bands and members, there were favorites of my reviews, which I appreciated, but there were also comments on the blog.

These were lengthy, detailed comments, one from someone at the show, one from a long time fan who had not been able to go. Again, there is that connection. I don't know them, but we all care about something, and have feelings about it, and it was good.

I guess what I am getting at there is that week it really felt like the blog mattered. Then, December 22nd, Patrick Stump replied to me.

I was about to leave for church, and I saw that he tweeted "@HarryConnickJR Makes such great holiday records." I replied "You would too. I can see you doing great with standards." What I did not know was that just an instant later he replied "I'd love to sing standards. Someday."

When I came back I had messages asking how I was even alive, and I saw that a tweet I was mentioned in had a lot of Favorites and Re-tweets (currently 78 and 10). That is cool, and getting a reply is cool, but the part that I really liked is that it validated what I had written when I reviewed them, thinking that he would do well with standards, though probably when he was older.

I have started getting better at hearing things, like picking up on when a band uses different tunings, or why they would do it. It makes me feel like I am actually getting good at this. So all of that happening around my 100th review felt significant. It wasn't a culmination, because I'm still doing it, but it was something. More good experiences keep happening. Maybe two more quotes can tie it all together.

“Hip-hop writing was done by people who were looking at it it from the outside. It wasn’t life or death. They weren’t gonna die if they didn’t write about the stuff. Whereas we probably would have.” – Reginald Dennis on The Source magazine, from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang, p 412

"You are what you love, not what loves you back."

(And yes, that last one is because of the line "You are what you love, not who loves you" in the Fall Out Boy song "Save Rock and Roll", which I guess ties in well, except I am hearing it in Elton John's voice, not Patrick's.)

These things that I write and draw, I feel compelled to do. I will be restless and unhappy if I don't do it. If I am the only one who cares about it, that's fine; I still need it.

However, more and more lately I want to share it. I end up sending links to different people, or responding to things, and I feel silly doing it, but it's been turning out okay. It is loving me back. That means a lot. 

Related posts: 

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/06/fall-out-boy-this-isnt-just-concert.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/concert-review-team.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/concert-review-third-eye-blind.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/and-then-everybody-died.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/02/internet-connectivity.html

Concert Review: Dads

It is probably because I have been studying emo, but it has occurred to me that Dads would have fit comfortably into the DC origins, like maybe they could play a show with Beefeater. They actually do list emo on their Facebook page, along with indie and punk. That sounds about right, but does not do much to tell you what a show sounds like.

There are only two people on stage: Scott Scharinger on guitar and John Bradley on drums. Sometimes Bradley sings, sometimes Scharinger, but Bradley does most of the talking.

That description may lead you to imagine something stripped down, like the White Stripes, but Dads is nothing like the White Stripes. Their sound is full, and the stage seems full, some of which may be due to Bradley's loose-limbed playing style. I'm not sure if he actually plays so much differently, or if it's just that I don't often get a good look at the drummer, but it was interesting to see, and it worked. The two of them were greater than the sum of their parts.

The music has a fair amount of variation, which I believe comes from a willingness to experiment. This is most evident on Brown on Brown, parts of which remind me of whale songs, and sometimes the ocean, but not generally at the same time. I thought there was effective use of feedback.

My favorite album has been American Radass (This Is Important). It is a bit livelier, though Brush Your Teeth Again ;) is fun to listen to, and has really interesting song structures. For Radass, I especially like the fast pace on "Groin Twerk" and the intro on "Grunt Work (The '69 Sound)".

At this point, there may be a false impression about the prevalence of parentheses in their titles. There is really only one other title that does it, also on Radass. However, it is worth mentioning the titles, because there is a contrast going on, where the titles often sound humorous, but the music sounds very serious. There may be a hint in the Facebook address, but I didn't get the impression that was it either.

The other thing I should mention is that there is some jumping around if you want to make purchases. Music downloads would be through Bandcamp. This is pretty normal, and prices are very reasonable.

If you want CDs, you go through http://www.sswatcher.jp/record/show/1713?p=1&q=dads&a=, but vinyl is through http://flannelgurl.bigcartel.com/product/dads-american-radass-this-is-important-12-inch, and other materials are through http://dads.storenvy.com/. It's probably not a big deal, because I think most music buyers would stick to one format, but it can be a little confusing.

My only other thought is that they should get together with Vinyl Over Wine.

http://wearentdads.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dads420

http://dadsnj.bandcamp.com/

https://twitter.com/wearentdads

UPDATE: Just heard from Dads that Brown on Brown is not them. That means all the better stuff is them, but that also means there are four different entities listed as Dads on Spotify, and they are not well-delineated.

Concert Review: Pentimento

On my first listen to Pentimento I liked them pretty well. Listening to them this week, they have really been affecting me, and I don't know whether it is because now I have seen them live, or just that the emotions of the music are coinciding with a phase in my life that they work with.

The music is powerful. It is not just the bass player's arms.

One of the things that struck me is that there is a pretty consistent lack of rhyming. That doesn't always work, but here it makes everything feel visceral and raw. Hear the cry of my heart. They are the relatable sounds of uncertainty, and feeling disregarded, and worry about throwing it all away. The lyrics are worth reading if you get a chance, but you feel them either way.

The main purchasing site seems to be via Paper+Plastick, but there is some availability via Amazon:

http://paperplastick.limitedrun.com/products/518176-pentimento-inside-the-sea

http://www.pentimentony.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PentimentoNY

http://www.youtube.com/pentimentoNY

https://twitter.com/pentimentoNY

Internet Connectivity

November 11th, Kryz Reid of Third Eye Blind tweeted that they had a day off in Madison, Wisconsin, and that it was not a typo.

I laughed, but then I remembered Lisa. This is the Lisa who introduced me to the Misfits, which set off the chain reaction that got me to being this concert-going, band reviewing, comic writing weirdo. Lisa had gone to school in Madison, and told me it was the original Keep It Weird city.

We used to have desks across from each other. Now we both telecommute, but we have chat options across the company network. I asked her what there was to do there, and the answer was a lot more than I thought. I would kind of like to go to Madison now. They have a Mustard Museum, and a taxidermy museum in the basement of a funeral home, and other cool things, some of which I passed on to Kryz. The easiest one was probably State Street for people watching and shopping. He did favorite, and a little bit later he tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/Kryzreid/status/400041935546503168/photo/1

That felt pretty cool. I know he might have ended up on State Street anyway, and we are not best friends or anything. There is still something amazing though, in that one person can express a thought in one place, and another person can see it, and contact someone familiar with that place, and get information. There is no searching for phone numbers or hassle; actually it was fun. It was fun to learn about Madison, and have a somewhat silly conversation with a friend, and it is amazing that we can do this while our dogs sleep around us and without having to deal with weather and public transportation.

In this writing segment I am struggling a lot. There are all of these points I want to make, and so I start writing things, and then I realize, no, that one doesn't need to be said, or that one does, but this needs to come first, and a lot of that is because of how it connects.

There is a long post that I wrote most of last week, which does involve Third Eye Blind, but not only them, and I keep putting it off because it feels like it is too much unless I cover other things first and build a foundation for it.

Some of that is because of different platforms. There are music related things in the post that happen via Twitter, Blogger, and in the real world. There is also a blog story that doesn't relate to music, but it does relate to the writing, and the connecting. Beyond that one post, there are things that are important with the teenagers, but they came about because of the bands. I am starting to get more involved with online feminism, but I swear it happened because of a comic book writer. Plus there is the constant circling back, because so much goes back to Lisa's alternate song list. There were other pieces in place, but she got the ball rolling, and it is still mind-boggling how much followed from it.

So there is this messiness that feels like it is holding me back until I sort it out, but I am not sure how neat any amount of sorting will get it. This is possibly how it should be; but it is frustrating.

Still, this segment of the writing is primarily about bands, and that is something I have been thinking about with following bands on Twitter. My last two concerts were Third Eye Blind and Reggie and the Full Effect. Both of those involve following individual musicians. It was interesting, because it led to a greater sense of anticipation for the show itself as there are updates about the tour's progress. They're getting closer. They're working their way up.

I'm not sure how much it changes the experience of the concert itself, because there are things about it that feel very much like they did before Twitter. There may be a great sense of investment in wanting the concert to go well, but I think that is about the same.

I do think it increases the recognition. It is so easy to learn everyone's name now, and who plays which instruments. Now there are often stories with the name. As Third Eye Blind took the stage, I do remember thinking "There's Kryz!", and then filling out where everyone else was. When I saw them in 2000, I'm not even sure I knew Stephen's name. I know I didn't know any of the others.

Now I know who everyone is. Does it change the concert? Maybe. I like it better because I think knowing people is important, and there are different levels of knowing, but again, that's where the internet gets messy.

When random bands started following me, I understood that it was an attempt to get me to check them out, and that I was one of many follows. Sometimes though, there would be a reply or something that would make me realize that we had become people to each other. Maybe we got there at different times, but it was no longer random. It happened with other fans too. First you are just liking a picture or answering a question you see, and then it becomes, "Hey. It's you." 

And it is a messy thing. A big part of appreciating the Reggie tour has been Cory White's tour diary, which is on Tumblr, but I see the posts because of Twitter. I posted about him helping me understand something about guitar on Blogger, and he told me he liked it on Twitter then, but then he mentioned it again in real life as he gave me guitar picks and hugs, and explained some more things to me. And that was a night where being there alone was feeling worse than usual, so bless Cory for recognizing me, and for being so sweet and kind.

As I write about two bands, I am listening to a third, Gin Blossoms (No Chocolate Cake), because that was the right mood for now. I have interacted with various members there, in real life and on Twitter. I am not sure whether I am familiar to them, or that just sometimes we have good interactions that fade back into the mass of all fan interactions. That's okay.

I will soon be switching to post the song of the day, from Coming, and then I will switch to listening to Pentimento and Dads so I can put their reviews up tomorrow and Friday. They may see these postings or not, and that's okay. I will listen while I organize my room and clear things out, in the hopes that some physical organization will aid the mental organization.

Also as I write, Alex LeCavalier of Third Eye Blind tweeted about a certain bass line requiring a pick, and I asked about that, because right now I don't have a feel for picks at all, but I sense that will have to change. And he answered! It doesn't make us best friends, but that's okay.

I know that there are a lot of different experiences to have with the internet, and we will return to that eventually. For now I have to say that there are a lot of really beautiful experiences you can have too. Lines blur, and it can be messy, so respect and kindness are really important, but those are important in other types of encounters too.

It can be really beautiful.

Can't stop, won't stop

Yesterday's post was written humorously, but it was also true. I am old, increasingly worried about money, and I do not have my own transportation. My mother worries when I am out late, which I know sounds lame, but while there is a limit to how much I can let that hold me back, there is also a limit to how callous I should be about that. And I don't love being there alone; it's just how it works out.

Also, this could be a very reasonable time to curtail my concert going. It would be hard to top 2013. I had written earlier about how magical 2013 was for comic events, and none of that will be happening this year; that is probably way more true for concerts.

Last year I went to ten shows. If we include the first show of 2014, and those two shows from late 2012, that includes five bands that I had missed chances to see, leaving only Maroon 5, about whom I have been the most ambiguous. It included two bands that I had never heard of until I got on Twitter (and grew to love MCR), and two bands that I only knew about because they followed me on Twitter, and one that I knew before, but only started to love late. It included opening bands that I have grown to love, but would never have known about. And frankly, it included some bands that I was not sure if I would still like them after so much time, but I did, so I guess given the chance I do still go to Maroon 5.

I was thinking about it when a friend posted her concert bucket list, and I realized that I've lived mine. There's not that sense of urgency anymore. There are bands I want to see, because I think they will be good shows. Right now, that list is mainly Dave Hause, Lit, and Alkaline Trio. I would like to see Torche, and while previously I thought I would be annoyed at a Blink-182 show, I think I would like to try it now. And of course, My Chemical Romance when they do their reunion tour in 2018 - I'd want to go to that. (Don't. Say. A Word!)

And that's where we get to the impossibility of changing, because I love it too much.

I love listening to bands while I work and write, but seeing them play is a completely different thing. That statement is so inherently true I don't even know how to qualify it, so I am going to point out a few different things from Sunday night that wouldn't necessarily fit in the reviews.

Pentimento: I noticed that the bass player was playing really - well, I was thinking of it as low, but he described it as close to the bridge, which is a much better way of expressing it. I asked him about it, and it was basically that it felt right for him, but he mentioned the power of the bass, and that it was a way of harnessing that. And I thought, without saying it, that the real power is in his arms. Seriously, it was obvious watching him talk: there is serious power there. Then I noticed that Zach, the bass player in Reggie and the Full Effect, played that way too. It may be very common, but I haven't noticed that before.

Dads: They didn't have a bass player, which is why they do not come up in the previous anecdote. However, I had been listening to the wrong band in preparation. There are two Dads on Spotify. Looking at their merch, seeing their song titles and logos, I can at least narrow that down.

And they were good; it was such a good show. I could still find new bands and write about music, but I would miss concerts. I don't want to pull back, I want to delve further in. I want to go to NAMM now! I'm not a manufacturer or distributor, and I'm not really press, but now I know it exists and I want to go. There's still so much to learn.

Therefore, I see myself giving in, and buying a ticket to Dave Hause, even though no one wants to go with me, and though while it is in a better part of town, it will still be far enough and get out late enough that I will be needing to afford a taxi again. At least I should be getting some overtime this month.

Viva la rock!

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/01/concert-scorecard.html

Your aging concert correspondent

I'm really tired and a little sore, but my hearing and voice have held up surprisingly well. Yes, I went to a concert last night. It was a good concert, and I will write many things about it, but today I am focusing on concert-going in general for this time of life.

I have been 42 for about 2 1/2 weeks now. It's not really that different from 41. It is quite a bit different from 14, and even 29.

I am tired. I went to bed around 1 and got up around 6:30. My feet and hips are sore, but less so than when I crawled into bed. My shoulders are better than usual; I think they got loosened up a little when I was waving my hands in the air like I just didn't care. (But I was waving them because I did care, so I'm not sure that expression makes sense.)

I wrote about getting knocked around at AFI. While I don't have any memory of the how the bruise that appeared on my left shin the next day got there, I do know how the right shin bruise got there a few weeks later. At Third Eye Blind there were some people in front of me who left early. I planned to move into their space, but those dividers for the bar are on raised boards, which I hadn't realized until I hit my foot on one and went down.

There were no injuries last night, but having now been at Branx, I think my decision to not go to the Torche show was correct. Even with a show that ended at 10 (and they were pretty much on schedule), getting home involved finding a not obvious route to the Burnside Bridge, walking past sleeping vagrants and people who were shouting at each other but maybe not fighting, and about a 20 minute wait for a bus. And I know homeless people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators, but seeing people going through trash and sleeping outdoors on a relatively cold night does not necessarily make you feel great about humanity.

(Obviously I could have grabbed a taxi, and I have done that before, but I hate how expensive that gets. So I spent an hour longer in transit, probably, with a lot more walking, but I finished my book.)

So there is kind of this question for me of "Am I getting too old for this?" I keep thinking that the right protocol would be to take one Advil before I leave, one when I get back, and to always remember to have ear plugs, but I never remember to do this.

This would be a reasonable time to retire. I have seen so many of the bands that I've wanted to by now. For the various lists I have had of bands I needed to see, and that I cruelly missed out on, I've seen them all except Maroon 5 now, and I have become really ambiguous about them.

So, having had so many good experiences, and with concerns about money, time and general stamina, letting that go would be completely reasonable.

I'm afraid it will also be impossible. More on that tomorrow.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/11/concert-etiquette.html

Band Review: Clones of Clones

There was something very comfortable for me in listening to Clones of Clones. The have taken much of their inspiration form the alternative rock of the '90s, and those were good times. The music does not feel a need to be ultra-aggressive or upbeat, but finds quiet, reflective grooves that are a nice change of pace. So, they are more mellow than many DC bands, but that is not a problem.

I really like what they do with the guitars. Intros are consistently good, setting the right tone and bringing you into the song.

You have to search a bit to find links for purchasing, so that may be an area where they could improve, but I eventually found that they are on iTunes, and that you can get a hard copy of a 4-track EP via Kunaki. For just listening, music is available through multiple sources.

I would like to hear them doing more. The band sounds promising.

http://www.clonesofclones.com/?page_id=6

http://www.youtube.com/user/ClonesOfClones

https://www.facebook.com/clonesofclones

https://soundcloud.com/clonesofclones

https://twitter.com/clonesofclones

Band Review: Sunshine Collective

On Sunshine Collective's Twitter profile, the description is "Fun yet sophisticated music for parents and kids alike."

Having that in mind, I expected something geared more for children, though that wasn't really the case. The songs are accessible to children. There are songs about grown-up relationships, but a reference to "heat" does not put it anywhere in a dangerous area. Stephanie Richards' vocals generally keeps the songs in a higher register, which may also be child-friendly, but it's nothing where you would feel like you would need children to listen to it.

(And if you do have children, child-friendly music for adults is certainly a better approach than Kidz Bop.)

For the overall sound, it reminds me of Jill Sobule, obviously with differences in content, and maybe some lighter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The music pulls from many different musical eras, sometimes sounding a little '20s or '30s, and then moving up. The best surprise is that finding that combination of strings and drums that I liked so much at the beginning of "This Day" (it has sort of a railroad feel, and it gets you) involves Gin Blossoms guitarist Jesse Valenzuela.

Music can be purchased via CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp.

http://www.sunshinecollective.com

https://twitter.com/suncollective

A week of music listening

I had a different post nearly ready, but I think it is still wandering too much, so I will see if I can whittle it down into something concise.

Music is important to me, and writing about it is important to me, and there is a lot that has happened with it, especially since starting the music reviews, and then it goes beyond music. So there is this jumble, where I probably have four posts that are all related.

Right now the simplest thing to do is go over my listening habits. I tracked my time spent listening last week. I was kind of curious, and it is a look into processes, which I dig.

Usually I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday off. Work days are 7:30 to 5:45, but usually for the first couple of hours I keep things quiet. There are people getting up and ready, maybe sleeping in, and I am not a morning person.

I usually start listening to music somewhere between 10 and 11 AM, and the first thing I will do is pick the song of the day. That usually just takes a few minutes. I had been working through existing play lists. Currently I am going through bands I have reviewed, and I have a list of bands that have not had a song of the day yet, but whom I intend to use. If I don't already know what song I am going to pick, I will check the review for ideas, and I will listen, maybe to a few different songs, but I generally don't agonize over it.

The next priority is listening to the bands that will be reviewed for that week. Ideally I will listen to all of the songs three times through, though with a group with a lot of songs it may not be possible. Thursday morning I will listen to the Thursday band one more time before I post the review, then the Friday band and will start Friday with them. I want to know that I have really given the music a shot, and that I am not missing anything about it.

I started off with For the Broken and Closer to Closure, but they sounded similar enough that I thought I better change it up, so I brought in The Delinquents. Normally that would just bump Closer to Closure to this week, but they have a longer discography available, and this week in addition to the regular reviews I am getting ready for a concert with three bands, only one of which I am familiar with. So this week I am listening to Sunshine Collective and Clones of Clones for review this week, and Dads, Pentimento, and Reggie and the Full Effect for concert preparation. (I did throw in some Esoteric, and I may add some Coalesce and Get Up Kids too, just to be thorough.)

The Reggie review should be next Friday, but I won't know if I will review the openers together or separately until after I have heard them. I could possibly decide that I have written enough about Reggie already, based on the one general review plus an album review. This is the first time I will see a band live after doing a review, so it's a new thing. (Though, if I can make it to see Dave Hause February 26th, that will be a second time and in the same month.)

Then is music that I listen to for different projects. One is that I have been trying to understand "Emo", but it was not really sinking in. I read Nothing Feels Good, and I listened to some of it, but what I am doing now is going through slowly and listening to all the bands. Even with that, it wasn't working, and so I have been needing to expand.

Everyone agrees that it starts with Rites of Spring, and listening to some Fugazi and Minor Threat in connection with that makes sense, but it was reading more on Spotify (most biographies come from Rovi) and Wikipedia that started giving associated bands from that time that really started to help. Some of it was understanding punk's move to hardcore, and the rise of indie bands, with the growing emphasis on DIY, and it all seems to contribute to the environment where emotional hardcore happens.

This basically means that I have also listened to REM, Black Flag, the Meat Puppets, Minutemen, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü, but I finally feel like I am on solid ground. The Buzzcocks were part of that, and I have actually started moving forward, having listened to Embrace and Gray Matter this week. After Beef Eater and Fire Party, I will be ready for Chapter 2.

This also led to some other things. For example, "Lipstick" by the Buzzcocks reminded me of "Shot By Both Sides" by Magazine. This totally makes sense, as Howard Devoto was a co-writer on both. I also heard a little bit of similarity between Gray Matter and Billy Idol's "White Wedding", so I needed to check that out, but it seemed less obvious, and  I can't point to any part of a Gray Matter song and say "Here!" Sunshine Collective may remind me of Jill Sobule, so I want to listen to her a bit this week as well.

Hearing one thing often leads to other things. For example, someone posted a clip of "Bell Song" from the opera Lakmé, which was fine, except that I was disappointed that it wasn't "Flower Duet", so then I needed to listen to that, and to the barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman.

There is also music that I use for writing. The big one was deciding to try and create a set list for a Gin Blossoms concert, because I wanted to listen to everything for that. When I put in the All American Rejects, that was while I was going over the screenplay for Hungry before loading it to Amazon. I guess after working on Family Blood, the Rejects are my vampire band. I can see where it could have gone in other directions.

When I pulled up "Barely Breathing" and "Kiss Me", that's because I was getting ready to work on Out of Step, which I have not loaded to Amazon yet. Conventional Weapons and Danger Days are for a different project, that I will probably not work on any more until next week, because there are too many other things.

"More Than This" is for a comic that I think I will also put off a month, but because that is on one of my play lists (Non-annoying love songs), I just let the other music go. I have started to rely on play lists a lot as my go-to listening, because I know I like them. However, I have also been making more of a point to pull up bands I like. So because I was hearing "Goodbye Copenhagen" in my mind, it was good to listen to New Politics, and "My Perfect Thing" led to listening to Farewell My Love.

I have mostly listed where I was listening. I use Spotify as much as I can, even when I own the music, because it pays a little, and more than the other paying sources. And, I can find a lot. For Gin Blossoms I needed to pull out my CDs for Dusted and Major Lodge Victory, and I have Pencey Prep on my desk right now, but they do pretty well. I will go through Youtube at least once for any band review though, if they have videos.

It may also be worth pointing out how closely this ends up being associated with work. On my off days, I try not to be chained to the computer, and that is where I do most of my listening. It does make my work hours more interesting, and if I must have a day job, having one where I can listen to music is an awesome perk. There are a lot of jobs where either the environment or the type of work would make it impossible.

The one thing that did not come up for the week in question is that some times I will pull up songs to sing. If I have karaoke coming up, or I just get in the mood, it will happen, and it tends to involve Fall Out Boy, Misfits, and Alkaline Trio, very likely with some Gin Blossoms and maybe Kaoma.

There are some important points to make there regarding how the current setup for music distribution limits what newer songs end up being available for karaoke, but I think I will save that for later. I will always come back to writing about music, because the music is always there. I am always hearing it and thinking about it, and eventually the words have to break through.

January 20th - 26th, 2014

Monday (late start due to a doctor appointment)

1:30 - 2:15 music videos for blog ("Love Like Winter", "Sing", "Don't Cry" and "Go")

2:30 - 3:02 For the Broken (Spotify)

3:03 - 3:14 Closer to Closure (Spotify)

3:15 - 4:11 The Delinquents (Soundcloud)

4:25 - 5:20 Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady (Spotify)

5:40 - 7:41 MCR Conventional Weapons and Danger Days (Spotify)

7:42 -8:30 "More Than This", rest of Non-annoying love songs play list, "Lipstick" and "Shot By Both Sides". (Spotify)

Tuesday

10:15 - 10:30 song of the day stuff

10:33 - 11:04 Delinquents, Soundcloud and Youtube

11:45 - 1:05 For the Broken, Spotify, Youtube

2:00 - 4:00 R.E.M, Murmur and Reckoning on Spotify

4:16 - 5:11 Farewell My Love, Gold Tattoos (Spotify)

5:12 - 5:47  Alkaline Trio tracks off of Crimson (Spotify)

Wednesday

10:15 "Stars of God" by Crow Black Sky for the song of the day.

1:40 - 3:20 AAR, When the World Comes Down and into Move Along, Spotify

5:13 - 5:30, 6:35-6:45 For the Broken, Spotify

Thursday

9:10 - 9:25 "Bell Song" and "Flower Duet", then barcarolle from Hoffman (Youtube)

9:30 - 10:05 New Politics, A Bad Girl in Harlem, Spotify

10:15 - 10:20 Song of day stuff, Fever Cadence

11:00 - 12:08  For the Broken, Spotify (with Youtube break for Chantal and Jimmy and Helena)

1:30 - 2:24 Fugazi, Repeater, Spotify

3:35 - 4:02 Delinquents on Soundcloud

Little break for Barely Breathing, Kiss Me, More than This, and some Reggie.

4:52 - 5:45 Rites of Spring, starting with 6 song demo but then going into Rites of Spring. Like the intro to Drink Deep.

Friday

10:45 - 11:00 Looking for song of day, Rattlesnake Gunfight and Kris Orlowski

11:45 - 12:50 Delinquents

2:16 - 2:40 Finishing Rites of Spring

2:42 - 3:24 Embrace

3:26 - 4:30 Gray Matter, Food for Thought/Take It Back, plus "White Wedding"

4:47 - 6:45 + 30 minutes later, Gin Blossoms

Saturday

11:15-11:30 Puppet Rebellion for Song of the Day

11:30 - 12:20, 2:30 - 8:30 on and off Gin Blossoms

Sunday

10:10 - 10:13 All the Apparatus for song of the day

3:00 4:30 - Gin Blossoms

Creating a set list - Gin Blossoms

As we covered last Monday, I get fixated on ideas, and then I have to do something with them. I can come off as weird and geeky and obsessive, but then there are often rewards, so I'm just going with it.

Wednesday, Jesse Valenzuela of the Gin Blossoms tweeted "New shows coming up! New set list? Send us some ideas"

I know a normal response to this would be to suggest one song, or a few that I like, but I started thinking specifically about a list. What songs would you put together? You want to start on a high note, and usually end that way, and then as you do slower or lower key songs, bring things back up. Then generally you run a similar trajectory with the encore.

You need to strike a balance there, but then there is the issue of balancing the old material with new material. People expect to hear the hits, but if you are promoting a new album, you need to do current music too. Maybe you want to challenge the audience a little; bring up something obscure or different, and let them arrive at it with you. Sometimes you can throw in something unexpected, like maybe the theme song from "The Jeffersons", and that element of surprise spices things up.

Different bands do it differently. Johnny Ramone knew their sets down to the minute, and knew when they were starting to play faster and get through it faster. Third Eye Blind seems to improvise more on stage, though I don't think they are flying completely blind. I'm not sure how the Gin Blossoms do it, but I started thinking about it.

My first thought was "29", because that was the one song I remember wanting that they did not play at the show. After getting used in a movie (The To Do List), that has better odds of getting included now.

I also thought I saw someone say "Cheating" to which I mentally screamed "No!" That's the one song I strongly object to. I don't care whom she reminds you of, yes, it is totally cheating and there is nothing else to call it! I know it's just a song! (Infidelity is kind of a hot button issue for me.)

The other reason "Cheating" stands out is because it is very country. Normally I would say that is not a recommendation, but I recently sang "Till I Hear It From You" at karaoke, and it came out kind of twangy. That never happens when I sing it at home. I do get the value of having some variety in the mix, but there are other songs that are a change of pace as well, like "Cajun Song" or "Memphis Time".

There are other factors that I can't really use. For example, if multiple songs use the same instrument tunings, it would make sense to cluster them together, and I have absolutely no idea which ones those would be. Still, I wanted to work on one entire set list, and I decided it needed to be done. So, I listened to a lot of Gin Blossoms, trying to figure out what would make a good set.

I did listen to Dusted again. I have thought of it more as a novelty, and I think that is an oversimplification, but at the same time, I'm not pulling anything from there that is not on something else. Also, while I would be totally down with "Quitter" showing up, I don't know if there would be anything weird about doing a Gas Giants song, so I did not put that in the mix.

Also, I did not put in a song by another band. I have heard them cover the Replacements, and I know they have a version of Folsom Prison Blues. I was thinking about something new, that they haven't done. It would feel presumptuous to include it in the set list, but different thoughts that I had that could work include "All Star", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", or "When I Come Around."

It's hard work, and there are tough cuts to be made. There are songs that I love, but there were too many already. (I went for a 13 song set followed by a 4 song encore, based on Just South of Nowhere - Live In Chicago having 17 tracks.)

As I was listening to Major Lodge Victory, miles away Mary, another fan that I met through tweets with the band members, was listening to "The End of the World" as it was just coming up for me. So that had to be on the list, because we fans connect with the music, and the band, and each other, and it's a beautiful thing.

My experience is that bands end on really upbeat songs so everyone is pumped, and that didn't feel right here, because I was thinking that we would not want them to go, even though it's inevitable, so I ended on a song about leaving and then a song about looking back.

Ultimately, my list doesn't matter, The most important thing will be that they are there, and bringing themselves and laying it down on the stage; that's what makes the show good. The planning is important, but the magic is in the moment.

I nonetheless did make a list. It boils down to me spending some time listening to good music and thinking about this band I love, and that's not bad.

I'm Ready

Miss Disarray

Follow You Down
Lost Horizons

The End of the World

Learning the Hard Way

Till I Hear It From You

Perfectly Still

Seeing Stars

Don't Change For Me

Found Out About You

Hey Jealousy

Going to California

Allison Road

Keli Richards

Until I Fall Away

29

Related posts:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/01/concert-review-gin-blossoms.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-gin-blossoms-and-i.html

Edited 2/28/2014
I just wanted to add this note, which relates, from Jack Barakat of All Time Low: 

I don’t get serious on twitter very often, but I would like to please ask people to stop chanting song names while we are talking or performing on stage, especially while Alex is playing acoustic songs. I appreciate you guys love certain songs, but we rehearse our “ideal set” for weeks before a tour so that we can put on our best show possible. We have 5 albums out and it becomes difficult, and often impossible to please everyone. We have a lot of songs to chose from, and because of that we are playing our longest set ever on this tour. We are very proud of the set we have created, and there is method behind our madness. All you're doing by screaming out song names is ruining the show for people who are enjoying it :) mahalo!

 

Bass notes

Last week was about catching up on the drawing and screenwriting, which is one type of creativity, and now I have a lot to say about the blogging and music writing. The natural space between that is the bass playing. That also works because the bass just may be the aspect of my life that best represents all of the other aspects. I am still pretty bad at it, and I still love it.

I am not naturally good at bass. It's not just being new to it; my fingers are pretty short. It reminds me of when Lisa Simpson was told how her stubby fingers would hold her back for saxophone. I don't think my fingers look stubby, but when I am trying to get them into the right position it feels like I was crazy to ever think of playing anything larger than a ukulele.

I am also not living up to my minimum goals associated with it. I decided I would just ask myself to practice fifteen minutes a day (plus getting it up on my head), and I often don't manage that. So basically, there are time constraints and limited abilities that prove frustrating, which again fits in with all aspects of my life.

At the same time, there are things about it that are remarkably fulfilling, and touching, and where it connects me to the larger world, and that's kind of how the other things come out too.

First of all, any time I sound a pure note, or I make an adjustment and it works, it gives me joy. The amount of satisfaction per note might go down somewhat as it becomes more common, but I've probably got a while.

I still need to forge my own path, which is overly intellectual. When I was starting out, I kept sounding out scales, and having all of these questions about why things worked that way, and I realized that I needed more background to feel right. I checked out Music Theory for Dummies, and that gave me what I needed to get to the next step. There is still a lot that I don't know, but it filled up the gaps that were bothering me. It also gave me future books to read, and introduced me to Boethius, so that was time well spent.

It has allowed me to help people. I have two Twitter friends who are learning guitar, and encountering frustrations. Even though I am sure that they already surpass me in playing and that they will get far better at this than I ever will, I have still been able to tell them things they need to hear. That is a really hard song; two of the best guitar players out there are featured on it, so give yourself some time. Your ear develops faster than your ability, so you will hear your errors before you can fix them, and that seems like torture, but it's how we get better. I might have known those things already, but I understand them better now.

I have gotten help from unexpected places through Twitter as well. About a month ago, one guitarist was sending other acquaintances a picture of a very unusual guitar, that I think would be hard to play, and I say that without intending any entendres, but they are there.

Anyway, I joined the conversation, and I sent a picture of my guitar, for no real reason except that I felt an impulse to do it and I mentioned being awkward with it. He wrote back "ahh. The flying V bass. Those can indeed feel a bit awkward to rock. Takes some getting used to..."

The first thing there is that it never occurred to me that I had picked out an awkward model, though in retrospect it totally makes sense. That might be part of my problem, and I would not have known. His saying that helps me take heart.

The other thing that is amazing is that the tweet was from Cory White, formerly of Coalesce (and some other bands) and now touring with Reggie and the Full Effect. Months ago I was listening to Coalesce, along with so many other bands, because I was trying to understand guitar better, and because they were touring with Torche. That was the show that I decided I could not go to, because I was worried about the venue, and yet I am pretty sure that is the venue where I am going to see him with Reggie Sunday night. (This show starts and will end earlier, and I'm just going to make it work.)

There are a lot of musical connections there, which is cool, but also just being present I learn things that help me, from people who really know what they are doing, and it's an amazing thing.

It is possible that I will not progress much as a player, but that what I do will help me write about music better and appreciate it more. That would be okay. At the same time, sometimes I will see someone playing and think "I could do that". I've got eight years before I'm late for starting Sabbath Keepers.

I'm just going to stick with it, at my own glacial pace. This is a magical guitar that appeared to me in a dream carried by Frank Iero, Lindsey Way taught me to drop my inhibitions with it, and Cory White has given me perspective. It is a beautiful part of my life no matter what happens from here.

So I will leave with these points to ponder. I have fallen in love at first sight with four guitars now: my bass, Dan Brown's (the Fixx) bass, the Schecter Ultra III (as seen with Kevin Preston in Prima Donna), and the guitar used by Charlie Sexton in the "Sunday Clothes" video.

Is this going to become an expensive hobby? Some people seem to end up with a lot of guitars.

What drives the chemistry, where some guitars I love instantly and others I only like?

Does it mean anything that the two 6-strings and their contexts lean a bit more Southern?

Why do some songs (especially "Bulletproof Heart" and "Thnks fr th Mmrs") make me want to play the guitar part, not the bass?

It's okay; I only really worry about the songs where I feel like I should play the keytar. I might be better at keytar, but it feels like that could lead to a scary place.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-daily-hat.html